Introduction: The ToxIC Qualified Clinical Data Registry (TQCDR)

Comparing practice performance to national benchmarks is an important tool for improving the quality of patient care. ACMT is happy to announce that on December 29, 2017 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved the ToxIC Registry as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR). A QCDR is a registry recognized by CMS as a tool to collect data on quality metrics. The ToxIC Qualified Clinical Data Registry (TQCDR) will now serve as a platform to report on medical toxicology measures to CMS akin to the Clinical Emergency Data Registry (CEDR) used by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) to report emergency medicine metrics to CMS.

Along with approving the QCDR, CMS also approved 6 medical toxicology quality measures. As part of an ongoing commitment to advocate for our specialty, ACMT commissioned a task force and has spent over 2 years developing multiple measures with you in mind. These toxicology-specific measures were submitted to CMS, and subsequently approved, as part of the QCDR application. Now medical toxicologists are empowered to report on measures that matter most to their practices. These are the first measures specifically designed for and by medical toxicologists.

The ACMT TQCDR will help you and your colleagues benchmark measures, participate in this important quality improvement program to improve patient care, demonstrate the value of medical toxicology practitioners, and to contribute to ACMT’s research efforts to enhance quality improvement in medical toxicology. More importantly, medical toxicologists are now able to directly participate in the CMS Quality Strategy Program, also known as the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), using medical toxicology metrics. Please visit our FAQ to learn more about our program.

In the past, there were few if any CMS-approved quality measures for medical toxicology. This made MIPS participation impossible for the practicing medical toxicologist. Therefore, without development of a QCDR, practicing our specialty would have had significant additional challenges if no quality measures existed.

Medical Toxicologists wishing to use the TQCDR for 2018 MIPS reporting, or simply to participate in this critically important national quality improvement program, may register, set up accounts and begin submitting data meeting 2018 MIPS requirements. All data will be submitted through the ToxIC Registry.